PRIA Logo™
S5616119th CongressWALLET

ADAPT Act

Sponsored By: Senator Daines, Steve [R-MT]

Introduced

Summary

Creates a comprehensive tax framework for digital assets. The bill would set rules for stablecoin payments, an optional mark-to-market regime for dealers and traders, and new sourcing and wash-sale rules for mined and traded tokens.

Personalized for You

How does this bill affect your finances?

Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.

Free to download

Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

9 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.

Easier tax treatment for crypto donations

If enacted, widely traded digital assets would be added to the types of donations that can avoid a written appraisal under the charitable-contribution exception. Donors of qualifying digital assets would not need an appraisal for that specific exception, subject to limits the Secretary may set to prevent abuse. The change would apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026. This could lower costs and paperwork for people who give appreciated crypto to charities.

Optional mark-to-market for crypto dealers

If enacted, dealers and people who trade covered digital assets as a business would be able to elect mark-to-market accounting under section 475. Covered assets would include traded digital assets, qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins, and certain related contracts and hedges. The election would apply to the year made and later years unless revoked with the Secretary's consent. For the first taxable year after enactment, certain identifications may be made by day 30 and resulting section 481 adjustments would be spread evenly over four years.

Clear rules for crypto investment trusts

If enacted, the bill would create rules that let certain exchange-listed digital asset investment trusts keep qualifying status while staking or managing redemptions, if they meet custody and staking conditions. A qualifying trust would generally need to be exchange-traded, hold a single proof-of-stake asset, use a qualified custodian, and have arm's-length staking through custodians. The bill would also let specified staking rewards, asset-loan payments, and gains count as qualifying income for publicly traded partnerships, but would exclude income from operating exchanges or providing financial services. These rules would apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026.

Tighter loss rules for crypto investors

If enacted, wash-sale rules would extend to traded digital assets, though qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins would be excluded from the specified-asset list. Economically equivalent tokenized and certain bridged assets would count as substantially identical for wash-sale purposes. The bill would also add digital assets (except qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins) to constructive-sale rules and include widely traded digital assets in the marketable-security definition. Exceptions would cover some validation-related acquisitions, periodic acquisitions included as ordinary income, and assets under mark-to-market treatment.

No tax on small crypto fees

If enacted, you would not recognize gain or loss when disposing of digital assets worth $10 or less to pay transaction costs for the same economic transaction. Covered costs include network gas, priority fees, tips, commissions, transfer taxes, and burned fees. The rule would not apply to dealers, brokers, validators acting as a business, or people who started more than 5,000 digital-asset transactions in the prior year. Brokers would still give aggregate information the Secretary requires and the $10 rule would exempt those small dispositions from certain broker reporting and wash-sale treatment.

No tax when spending certain stablecoins

If enacted, you would not recognize gain or loss when you use a qualified U.S. dollar stablecoin to buy goods or services. The stablecoin must be on the Secretary of the Treasury's most recent list and you must have bought it at a price within 3% of $1.00. The rule would not apply to dealers, brokers, traders, similar businesses, or taxpayers whose functional currency is not the U.S. dollar. It would apply to transactions entered into after December 31, 2026, and would include broker and recordkeeping rules the Secretary prescribes.

Easier tax rules for foreign trading

If enacted, trading in traded digital assets generally would not be treated as a U.S. trade or business when done through a resident broker, commission agent, custodian, or independent agent, or when done for the trader's own account. Dealers in covered digital assets would be excluded from this rule. The change would apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026. This could reduce U.S. trade-or-business tax exposure for some foreign or cross-border traders who meet the conditions.

New rules for digital asset loans and debt

If enacted, rules for transfers and payments-with-respect-to-loans would explicitly cover traded digital assets as applicable assets. The Secretary could treat protocol distributions, staking rewards, and staking-related fees as amounts that accrue during an agreement period. Qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins would be excepted from one registration-required debt rule, and digital assets without a fixed maturity date would be treated as having a 25-year maturity for one rule. The changes would apply to transfers and taxable years after enactment, and the Secretary would set details on disclosures and where statements must appear.

New tax rules for miners, stakers, and DAOs

If enacted, income from digital-asset validation would generally be sourced to the United States when earned by U.S. persons and sourced outside the United States when earned by non-U.S. persons. Mining-pool receipts for mining would count as validation income, but payments for hosting or equipment management would not. The bill would let qualifying tax-exempt organizations exclude certain delegated validation income from unrelated business taxable income if they meet delegation and nonparticipation rules. The Secretary must also issue guidance within 12 months clarifying reorganizations for certain foreign entities tied to decentralized autonomous organizations, including temporary safe harbors for entities formed before September 24, 2026.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Daines, Steve [R-MT]

MT • R

Cosponsors

  • Sen. Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY]

    WY • R

    Sponsored 9/30/2026

  • Sen. Moreno, Bernie [R-OH]

    OH • R

    Sponsored 9/30/2026

  • Sen. Scott, Tim [R-SC]

    SC • R

    Sponsored 9/30/2026

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

View on Congress.gov
Back to Legislation